Gustavo Dudamel

Gustavo Adolfo Dudamel Ramírez (born January 26, 1981) is a Venezuelan conductor. At age 27, he is presently the principal conductor of Sweden's Gothenburg Symphony, and in September of 2009 he will become the new Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has been described by the New York Times as "one of the hottest — and youngest — conducting properties around."
Dudamel was born in Barquisimeto in the state of Lara. He studied music from an early age, becoming involved with El Sistema, the famous Venezuelan musical education program, and took up the violin at age ten. He soon began to study composition. He attended the Jacinto Lara Conservatory, where he was taught the violin by José Luis Jiménez. He then went on to work with José Francisco del Castillo at the Latin-American Violin Academy.
He began to study conducting in 1995, first with Rodolfo Saglimbeni, then later with José Antonio Abreu. In 1999, he was appointed music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar, the national youth orchestra of Venezuela, and toured several countries.
Dudamel began to win a number of conducting competitions, including the Gustav Mahler Conducting Prize in Germany in 2004. His reputation began to spread, and he was noticed by conductors such as Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado, who accepted invitations to conduct the Simón Bolívar Orchestra in Venezuela.
Dudamel debuted with the Philharmonia, the Israel Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, among others, in 2005, and also signed a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. In 2006, his additional guest conducting appearances included concerts with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. He made his debut at La Scala, Milan, with Don Giovanni in November 2006. On September 10, 2007, he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time at the Lucerne Festival. In March 2008, he made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony.
In 2005, Dudamel first conducted the Gothenburg Symphony at the BBC Proms, on short notice as a replacement for the indisposed Neeme Järvi. In 2006, Dudamel was named Principal Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony as of 2007. He will retain his position with the Simón Bolívar National Youth Orchestra.
Dudamel made his U.S. conducting debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (LAP) at the Hollywood Bowl on September 13, 2005 in a program consisting of "La Noche de los Mayas" by Silvestre Revueltas and the Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5. The concert was attended by many American orchestra administrators, and the performance was well received by the Philharmonic, audience, and critics. On the strength of these performances, Dudamel was invited back with the orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall in January 2007 in performances of "Dances of Galanta" by Zoltan Kodaly, the third piano concerto of Sergei Rachmaninoff with Yefim Bronfman as soloist, and Bela Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra (the latter of which was recorded live and subsequently released by Deutsche Grammophon). In April 2007, during a guest conducting engagement with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Dudamel was named the LAP's next music director as of the 2009-2010 season, succeeding Esa-Pekka Salonen. His initial contract in Los Angeles is for five years.
On April 16, 2007, Gustavo Dudamel conducted the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra in a concert in commemoration of the 80th birthday of Pope Benedict XVI, with Hilary Hahn as solo violinist, with the Pope himself and many other church dignitaries among the audience.
Dudamel is featured in the documentary film "Tocar y Luchar," which celebrates El Sistema.
"The 2007 WQXR Gramophone Special Recognition Award is presented to Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela on the stage of Carnegie Hall on November 10."
A piece about Gustavo, entitled "Gustavo the Great" aired on American TV news program 60 Minutes with reporter Bob Simon on February 17, 2008.

Charles Ives

One might say Charles Ives was the most original and most radical, and arguably the greatest, of the American composers of art music. One might also say that he was one of the most innovative figures in music history because he is named America’s first major composer.
Charles was born in Danbury, Connecticut on October 20, 1874. His father was George Ives, a bandleader in the Union Army who had served with General Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War. George gave his son Charles a highly unorthodox musical education by European standards.
It was not an option to learn of the three B’s – Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. He received much instruction in harmony and counterpoint (counterpoint being the harmonious opposition of two or more independent musical lines). He would also be given lessons on the violin, piano, organ, cornet, and drums.
Most importantly young Ives was taught how to “stretch his ears,” as he said. This method of instruction would play a HUGE part in the progression of Ives’ creative composing. In order to practice “stretching his ears,” He was made to sing a song called “Swanee River” in the key of Eb while his father accompanied him on the piano in the key of C – this was a useful lesion in polytonality.
Since his ancestors had attended Yale it was expected for young Charles to enroll in the same University to study music. He took courses in music from a composer who studies in Germany. His name was Horatio Parker. Because of Ives young, independent ideas about how music should sound, these ideas clashed with Parker’s traditional European training in harmony and counterpoint. Ives opted to leave his experimental musical ideas out of the classroom and express his musical creativity in extracurricular musicals and things of that nature. He graduated with the class of 1898 with a maintained D+ average in grades. He did not pursue music as a profession because he realized that the people of his time would not pay money to hear the music he would create.
Instead of pursuing music he headed to New York and Wall Street. In 1907 Ives and a friend formed the company Ives and Myrick, an insurance agency that became the largest company in the United States. Long hours of work and spare-time composing caused an undermined to his health and in 1918 he had a heart attack. This decline in health caused Ives to think of retirement. Upon retirement in 1930 the company had sales of $49 million. So Ives had been a millionaire for sometime before he retired.
He was a modernist of the most extreme; given the time period he lived in.
Ives devised radical, compositional techniques and was the first composer to use polytonality extensively. Polytonality is the simultaneous sounding of two or more keys. This would make pieces of music sound distorted or cause tonal clashed and the tune would seem out of phase with other tune’s. He also experimented with quarter-tone music - music in which the smallest interval is not the chromatic half step but half of a half step. Ives would always take the familiar and “defamiliarize” it - making the old, sound very modern.
The Three Places in New England (Orchestral Set No. 1) is a composition for orchestra by Charles Ives. It was composed across a long span of time (sketches date back from 1903, while the latest revisions were made in 1929), however the bulk was written between 1911 and 1914. Three Places consists of three movements in Ives’ preferred slow-fast-slow movement order:

I. The "St. Gaudens" in Boston Common (Col. Shaw and his Colored Regiment)
II. Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut
III. 'The Housatonic River at Stockbridge

The three movements are ordered with the longest first and the shortest last, and a complete performance of the piece lasts eighteen or nineteen minutes.
The piece has become one of Ives' most commonly performed compositions. It showcases most of the signature traits of his style: layered textures, with multiple, simultaneous melodies, many of which are recognizable hymn and marching tunes; masses of sound, and tone clusters; and sudden, sharp textural contrasts.
Each of the three movements is named for a place in New England. Each is carefully composed to make the listener feel as though he or she is at that very place, experiencing its unique atmosphere. Ives’ use of paraphrasing American folk tunes is particularly important in creating such an effect, as it provides the listener with some sort of tangible reference point from which to access the music. In this way, Ives makes the music accessible even though it makes heavy use of chromatics which, at the time of its writing, was seen as an advanced trait.
Ives' music was largely ignored during his lifetime as an active composer, but since then his reputation has greatly increased.
Although Charles Ives had brought his work to completion long before his death in the spring of 1954, it is still largely unknown to the American musical public. Some do not even know his name; others have heard of him as a composer from professional musicianship; still others have gained an impression when some of his work had a public performance.
For all of the obscurity and neglect that followed this man no one would argue of what an enigmatic composer he was and how difficult it was to understand and explain many of his works.

Beautiful!

This may be stated without danger of hyperbole: Lalah Hathaway, as the older daughter of classic soul music artist Donny, and classically trained vocalist Eulaulah, is the poster child for genetic coding. Given such auspicious DNA, one is not surprised to discover her a gifted—even brilliant—singer.
Not shocked in the least. And, of course, these types of assumptions are not necessarily just, but talent is expected ? Considered birthright—the scheme of the stars, the design of a divine hand. It makes it all the more impressive that, while Lalah has been imbued with—and influenced by—her begetters' faculties, she is, ultimately, her own artist—an individual voice seeking a singular aesthetic and pursuing it arduously, painstakingly, and sans compromise. She is an artist managing the feat of all great artists—to borrow from existing color, only to create brilliant and unexpected pastiche. To be, at once, familiar and foreign.

In 1990, Lalah was responsible for an acclaimed debut album, eponymously titled and compliments of Virgin Records. Words like "smoky" and "confident" were used to describe it. Then, in 1994, came the album A Moment, also on Virgin. Again, glowing reviews. She was said to be the possessor of "torchy elegance" and to have made a "solid" and "independent step" in contemporary Rhythm and Blues. Lalah joined Joe Sample—jazz veteran of The Crusaders fame—for 1999's The Song Lives On; he provided the formidable piano tracks and she? well, she did what she always does: mesmerized us with a more than notable, persistently sultry vocal performance. Most recently, she has come to the table with a group of songs that reveals an even greater maturity and a darkly original approach to production.

Happy Mother's Day

No words could completely describe the thanks that mothers across the world deserve. It is but a shame that merely one day out of the entire year is given to honor mothers everywhere. However, I will take this day I am given to show much honor and respect to my mother. I hope you will do the same regardless of the circumstance.

Brilliant!

Hiromi Uehara first mesmerized the jazz community with her 2003 Telarc debut, Another Mind. The buzz started by her first album spread all the way back to her native Japan, where Another Mind shipped gold (100,000 units) and received the Recording Industry Association of Japan's (RIAJ) Jazz Album of the Year Award. The keyboardist/ composer's second release, Brain, won the Horizon Award at the 2004 Surround Music Awards, Swing Journal's New Star Award, Jazz Life's Gold Album, HMV Japan's Best Japanese Jazz Album, and the Japan Music Pen Club's Japanese Artist Award (the JMPC is a classical/jazz journalists club). Brain was also named Album of the Year in Swing Journal's 2005 Readers Poll. In 2006, Hiromi won Best Jazz Act at the Boston Music Awards and the Guinness Jazz Festival's Rising Star Award. She also claimed Jazzman of the Year, Pianist of the Year and Album of the Year in Swing Journal Japan's Readers Poll for her 2006 release, Spiral. Hiromi continues her winning streak with the 2007 release of Time Control.

Born in Shizuoka, Japan, in 1979, Hiromi took her first piano lessons at age six. She learned from her earliest teacher to tap into the intuitive as well as the technical aspects of music.

"Her energy was always so high, and she was so emotional," Hiromi says of her first piano teacher. "When she wanted me to play with a certain kind of dynamics, she wouldn't say it with technical terms. If the piece was something passionate, she would say, 'Play red.' Or if it was something mellow, she would say, 'Play blue.' I could really play from my heart that way, and not just from my ears."

Hiromi took that intuitive approach a step further when she enrolled in the Yamaha School of Music less then a year after her first piano lessons. By age 12, she was performing in public, sometimes with very high-profile orchestras. "When I was 14, I went to Czechoslovakia and played with the Czech Philharmonic," she says. "That was a great experience, to play with such a professional orchestra."

Further into her teens, her tastes expanded to include jazz as well as classical music. A chance meeting with Chick Corea when she was 17 led to a performance with the well-known jazz pianist the very next day.

"It was in Tokyo," Hiromi recalls. "He was doing something at Yamaha, and I was visiting Tokyo at the time to take some lessons. I talked to some teachers and said that I really wanted to see him. I sat down with him, and he said 'Play something.' So I played something, and then he said, 'Can you improvise?' I told him I could, and we did some two-piano improvisations. Then he asked me if I was free the next day. I told him I was, and he said, 'Well, I have a concert tomorrow. Why don't you come?' So I went there, and he called my name at the end of the concert, and we did some improvisations together."

After a couple years of writing advertising jingles for Nissan and a few other high-profile Japanese companies, Hiromi came to the United States in 1999 to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. For as open as her musical sensibilities had already been when she came to the U.S., the Berklee experience pushed her envelope even further.

"It expanded so much the way I see music," she says. "Some people dig jazz, some people dig classical music, some people dig rock. Everyone is so concerned about who they like. They always say, 'This guy is the best,' 'No, this guy is the best.' But I think everyone is great. I really don't have barriers to any type of music. I could listen to everything from metal to classical music to anything else."

Among her mentors at Berklee was veteran jazz bassist Richard Evans, who teaches arranging and orchestration. Evans co-produced Another Mind, her Telarc debut, with longtime friend and collaborator Ahmad Jamal, who has also taken a personal interest in Hiromi's artistic development. "She is nothing short of amazing," says Jamal. "Her music, together with her overwhelming charm and spirit, causes her to soar to unimaginable musical heights."

At 26, Hiromi stands at the threshold of limitless possibility, constantly drawing inspiration from virtually everyone and everything around her. Her list of influences, like her music itself, is boundless. "I love Bach, I love Oscar Peterson, I love Franz Liszt, I love Ahmad Jamal," she says. "I also love people like Sly and the Family Stone, Dream Theatre and King Crimson. Also, I'm so much inspired by sports players like Carl Lewis and Michael Jordan. Basically, I'm inspired by anyone who has big, big energy. They really come straight to my heart."

But she won't, as a matter of principle, put labels on her music. She'll continue to follow whatever moves her, and leave the definitions to others.

"I don't want to put a name on my music," she says. "Other people can put a name on what I do. It's just the union of what I've been listening to and what I've been learning. It has some elements of classical music, it has some rock, it has some jazz, but I don't want to give it a name."



http://www.hiromimusic.com/index.htm

A ray of sunshine...

Nine and a half years ago a beautiful, loving and incredible little girl was brought into my life! This little girl is my younger sister. She has taught me so much in the past nine and a half years and I will always be thankful to God for giving her to me.

Life lessons can be learned from the people least expected. I never thought that I would learn such great things from a child, but every single day I am reminded to be a better person.

The life of a child would never have been so impactful to me if this wonderful little girl was not in my life. Her open mind and thirst for knowledge has constantly made me remember to never lose that passion for life.

MTV ARTIST OF THE WEEK: MARIAH CAREY

(Photo Credit: Danika Singfield)


Even back in the early ‘90s, when she was just a curly-haired Long Island girl in cut-offs and a hoodie, Mariah Carey — the youngest daughter of a struggling, middle-class broken home — was that chick, destined for a luxe life of Louis Vuitton luggage and Louboutin heels. That larger-than-life voice soared out of our Sony Sports Walkman (remember the banana-yellow ones?) like a supernatural force, and nearly two decades, five Grammys, 11 studio albums, and 18 #1 singles later, that chick’s still rocking iPods and MTV.


With that logic-defying range that glides from whisper-soft-sexy-sweet to match-in-a-gas-tank explosive, Mariah went Unplugged, got animated for Christmas, and took down a cheating Jerry O’Connell at a matinee. She went undercover on a Jet Ski, fled her symbolic wedding, cruised Paris with Pharrell, and lived out a computer geek’s fantasy with a unicorn at her side. She debuted more #1 singles than any other artist in chart history, and she spent more time on the charts and broke and sold more records than half her peers combined.


She’s the voice, the body (those abs!?!?), and an unrivaled musical legend. Yet she still manages to embrace the spotlight (while skillfully avoiding scandal), and work the treadmill in spike heels — which, as MTV’s Artist of the Week, you can catch her doing all week.







Watch more videos of the lovely Miss Mariah at http://www.mtv.com

New Beginnings...

What makes someone take a second, third or fourth look at their life, evaluate where they are, encounter a life changing moment, and then move forward? The answer to that is unknown. However, everyone has those moments in their life; sometimes many times throughout their life. They come at the least expected and most needed times in your life. Although they are completely unexpected, a majority of the time they come at the last moment when you need a change the most. Even in times where you don't necessarily need a complete change in your life, you need a good kick in the seat of the pants to wake you from your sleep.


There is something incredibly mysterious about the year 2008. Every human being walking the face of this earth, at this point in time, has experienced life-changing events that they have never dreamed. Some setbacks to set-ups, some setbacks to a downward spiral to destruction, and others the most prosperous year of their life (very few though)!


I once studied that, "the number 8 itself means new birth or new beginning. The number 8 comes after the number 7 which means completeness." This will only mean something to you if you believe in symbolic time periods. There is something very interesting about the significance of time that most people do not recognize. If we merely walk through our lives without acknowledging we could be walking in a specific meaningful time, there is certainly no purpose to even believing that we are born for a reason. I personally am comforted in knowing that somewhere between the beginning and the end of my life I will make a difference in someone else's life and fulfill my dreams when the time is right.


With the knowledge of knowing this could be the year of new beginnings, there is so much possibility to grow and start something great that can in turn change your pathway in life and lead you into the most amazing journey. Life is short, unfair, unkind and unforgiving but yet one of the most ever changing. If you do not change or start your new beginning today because of fear or doubt, just wait to see the sunrise of tomorrow and have a little more faith then you did yesterday.

From a park bench... I am reminded

The inner child in all of us can be drawn out from a simple view of a past memory. A profound yet simple action can be dug from the past burial of our old lives. Remembering the days from a time that was, and then a time gone forever, is a stepping stone into the future that is set before you.

Your every day existance depends on the true acceptance of things before -- to things present -- and faith for a bright future. Just because everything began with us as children doesn't mean we are designed to stay there. To grow and learn is the ultimate goal and the memories are there to just recall and bring feelings of sorrow or joy into our lives for only a moment; then the momet is forever gone.

Living trapt in a world where our past depicts our present and future and holding strong to feelings untrue only confine you to never moving from today to tomorrow. To live and truely live your beautiful life is to experience every mountain and endure every valley, to live every dream and destroy every sorrow, to laugh every day and live by every word you say; this is what I truely deserve.